EE Customer Receives £1,200 Phone Bill for Excessive Emoticon Use

EE customer Paula Cochrane has a fondness for sending emoticons. Or at least she did, before a £1,200 bill turned her :-) into a :-( .

The hairdresser found that her Samsung phone had been converting any message containing an emoticon into a picture message, at a cost of 40p a go. Not realising the messages were being sent in such a way and believing her £30.99 a month "unlimited" contract had her covered, Cochrane was shocked to find that December and January's usage had cost her £900, while February was already at £150 just a few days into the month.

"Even the staff at my local EE shop were shocked when I told them," Cochrane told The Daily Record.

"They knew nothing about it [...] Do EE really think I'd run up these bills if I knew the cost? It's daylight robbery. I feel violated that EE have withdrawn more than £1,000 from my account for a £30.99-a-month contract. It's totally unacceptable."

EE has an area on its website dedicated to explaining why a message may be converted from SMS to MMS in transit.

It's not an unusual bug when it comes to Samsung phones though, with many the Galaxy S1, S2, S3 and S4, and well as Galaxy Note 1, 2, and and Galaxy Ace all reported to sometimes cause similar problems. Keep it in mind before sending that next smiley. [The Daily Record]